Abstract

Cellulose, a well-known fascinating biopolymer, has been considered to be a sustainable feedstock of energy sources and chemical engineering in the future. However, due to its highly ordered structure and strong hydrogen bonding network, cellulose is neither meltable nor soluble in conventional solvents, which limits the extent of its application. Therefore, the search for powerful and eco-friendly solvents for cellulose processing has been a key issue in this field for decades. More recently, certain ionic liquids (ILs) have been found to be able to efficiently dissolve cellulose, providing a new and versatile platform for cellulose processing and functionalization. A series of cellulose-based materials, such as films, fibers, gels and composites, have been produced readily with the aid of ILs. This review article highlights recent advances in the field of dissolution and processing of cellulose with ILs. It is hoped that this review work will stimulate a wide range of research studies and collaborations, leading to significant progress in this area.

Authors contributing to RSC publications (journal articles, books or book chapters)
do not need to formally request permission to reproduce material contained in this
article provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.

Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

For reproduction of material from NJC:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS) and The Royal Society of Chemistry.

For reproduction of material from PCCP:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the PCCP Owner Societies.

For reproduction of material from PPS:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the European Society for Photobiology,
the European Photochemistry Association, and The Royal Society of Chemistry.

For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals and books:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry.

If the material has been adapted instead of reproduced from the original RSC publication
"Reproduced from" can be substituted with "Adapted from".

In all cases the Ref. XX is the XXth reference in the list of references.

If you are the author of this article you do not need to formally request permission
to reproduce figures, diagrams etc. contained in this article in third party publications
or in a thesis or dissertation provided that the correct acknowledgement is given
with the reproduced material.

Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

For reproduction of material from NJC:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the RSC

For reproduction of material from PCCP:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of the PCCP Owner Societies

For reproduction of material from PPS:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the
European Society for Photobiology, the European Photochemistry Association, and
RSC

For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry

If you are the author of this article you still need to obtain permission to reproduce
the whole article in a third party publication with the exception of reproduction
of the whole article in a thesis or dissertation.

Information about reproducing material from RSC articles with different licences
is available on our Permission Requests page.